Where Music Comes to Play

Archive for contest

As already promised earlier, Anythingbutipod is giving away a shiny, fresh, award winning Cowon iAudio 10. To win the i10, the only thing you need to do is to subscribe to the CrowdGadgets newsletter. The contest is open to anyone worldwide, not just US residents. The winner will be announced in the newsletter on November 21st. Good luck!

A big thank you to Cowon Korea for donating the prize. Read on for the design awards the i10 won so far. Continue reading…

We are giving away a SanDisk Sansa Fuze+ on our anythingbutipod Facebook page. Simply hit the like button and you are entered to win. You will receive an black 8GB Fuze+ with a Rock SlotRadio card. Anyone can enter and I will ship anywhere the US postal service will allow me to ship. This contest will end May 31st.

But wait there is more! We are also running a similar contest at anythingbutiphone and giving away an HTC HD7 Windows Phone. Just the same as the ABI contest just hit the like button on the anythingbutiphone Facebook page and you will be entered to win. Only two days left so show us some love!

Actually, one more…. SanDisk is also running a contest on their Facebook page as well. Check it out.

Just a heads up to one of our giveaways we are running in the forums. All you have to do is show up really and you have a chance to win one of 3 pairs of Radius Atomic Bass IEMs. They retail for around $40 and are on par and maybe slightly ahead of the curve in that price range. They are heavy on the bass, more than the Mylar One XB’s but they lack clarity in the highs. They sound a lot like the included Zen X-Fi headphones, the EP-830s.

About a month ago we started running a contest urging readers to send in pictures of themselves and their portable (and sometimes not so portable) setups. The contest was a lot of fun with around 100 participants showing off a few hundred photos. The winners of each category have been chosen and the winner of the random drawing is shown below.

Thank you all that participated, we had a lot of fun with this one and it really showed off the creativity of our forum members. There were so many great entries, so please be sure to check out all of them in the contest forum.

I got a brand new 4GB silver Sansa Clip just hanging out here at abi>>headquarters, so I thought it would be best to find it a happy home. It has been one of my favorite players for ultra portable on the go use since it pair so nice with my Shure SE530s- it’s crisp sound in a small package.

So here is your chance to add something shiny to your on-the-go audio ensemble, but first we would love to see what you are using now. There will be several judged categories including, so no matter what you are carrying around, even a stock setup, you have chance of winning. Head over to the contest forum to check out the categories, examples, and official rules. Here is a chance to show off you gear!

The contest to with the Gigabeat drew over 50 entries sparking the imaginations of real MP3 player users from all over the world. Some of them were gadgets we wished we could have in our hands now. Two particular entries that the mods lusted over were the member Inidgo’s Inigo Intrigue, a 128GB SSD wireless touch based PMP, or Kadajawi’s sexy phone player dubbed the k.urved.

However, sticking with the contest guidelines of the player’s convincingness and presentation there were a few that stood out as some pretty good fakes- these being the iAudio U7, Sansa Peach, Sansa Talon, and the Sansa Ultima. However, there can only be one winner of the grand (and only) prize of a brand new Toshiba Gigabeat T400 (one of my personal favorites).

In celebration of the New Year and in the spirit of CES 2008 let’s see who can come up with the most convincing fake. Be creative, give the player a name- im sure many of you can do better than some of Sony’s hard to remember alphanumeric titles or Creative’s latest lack-of-adjective Zen ____. Give the player specs- what features would you want on the player?

The winner will be chosen by our forum moderators based on how convincing the mockups are and the creativity of the fake. You may enter up to three different devices and any graphics program can be used, it does not have to be Photoshop. To enter post a thread in the contest forum located here. Please be sure to read the posting guidelines.

abi Editor's Choice

SanDisk Sansa Clip+

The Clip+ has a fantastic little form factor; somewhat cheap in build quality but very rugged. The interface is simple and relatively straightforward. The features on the Clip are more or less average, however it supports the alternative Rockbox firmware which provides tons of additional options (gapless playback, Replaygain, playlists, Last.fm scrobbling, etc). Read the full review or go ahead and buy it.

Cowon J3

The J3 is a fantastic PMP with a very nice AMOLED screen and tons of features. It sports Cowon's trademark BBE sound enhancements, and offers a customizable user interface with strong support by our user community. You can usually find it at Amazon for the best price - and don't forget to check out our review.

Microsoft Zune HD

Sure, many of us are not big fans of the walled garden, but there are a lot of great things going on with the Zune: sturdy hardware, ultra easy to use user interface, and a media player that is worthy of Editor’s Choice. You can check out our Zune HD review or stop by our Zune forums for the latest info and gossip.

Phonak Audéo PFE

Phonak Audéo PFE offer outstanding clarity and precision; natural, dynamic mids and treble, and decent bass for a single armature in-ear phone. They handle dense, complex music very well. The PFE work well with most acoustic and some electronic music genres, but bassheads might have to look at other alternatives. They're great for sports as well, since they fit very securely. Check out our review.

Hippo VB

The Hippo VB (Variable Bass) offers a serious subwoofer for on the go, right in your head. They don’t just deliver generous quantities of punchy, textured bass, but good audio quality over the whole frequency range with decent clarity and exceptional soundstage. Exchangeable bass ports let you customize their sound to your liking. Read our in-depth Hippo VB review.

Soundmagic E10 / E30

The Soundmagic E10 and E30 are basically right in the middle between the Phonak PFE and Hippo VB - not too analytical sounding, not too bass heavy. The E10 provide a bit more bass, the E30 a bit more clarity. Both come with a very fair price tag considering the sound quality they deliver - a great choice for the audio aficionado on a budget. Read our E10 and E30 reviews for more info.